


Future Days

by memes_of_production



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Female Harry Potter, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:27:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25288315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memes_of_production/pseuds/memes_of_production
Summary: The years of peace following the Second Wizarding War is broken by a mysterious string of murders targeting former Death Eaters. Tracey Davis, now an off-duty Auror, teams up with her friend, Lucy Potter, in order to uncover the mess, as it slowly becomes clear that their society will be left irreversibly changed. Post-DH, Fem!Harry, Non-Canon Compliant
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	1. Pleasant Reunions

**-XXX-**

**CHAPTER 1**

**Pleasant Reunions**

**-XXX-**

Tracey rapidly knocked on the door and waited for her friend to take her sweet time to actually get to actually opening it. It was only after fifteen torturously slow seconds, that the door finally clicked open.

If Lucy Potter was surprised to see her standing outside, her face didn't show it.

"You should be at work."

Tracey ignored that and walked past her into the room. Thick brown curtains covered the singular small window, making it fairly difficult to see things even at noon. It was pretty clear that much of the space was taken by large boxes full of who knows what. Knowing her friend, a single one of those boxes probably had more powerful locking charms than most wizarding houses. It was a shame, really, since her friend had a huge collection of all sorts of strange devices, both magical and non-magical. Tracey being Tracey, loved to fiddle around with them. Lucy being a killjoy, just had to make the dangerous items much more difficult to reach. She noticed that the floor was covered in a soft and fluffy carpet, which was new. Almost feeling bad for not taking off her dirty boots, Tracey plopped herself down on the only chair in the room.

"I take my precious time to visit my dear friend and this is the welcome I get," said Tracey, setting her boots on the large and sturdy desk beside the chair. The chair was one of those muggle ones which had wheels, much to her delight. "And, you still haven't finished setting things up. It's been, what, a month since you moved in here?"

"Had things to do." She heard Lucy muttered alternating between waving and tapping her wand against the door, no doubt weaving some manner of protective charms.

"I bet you did, what with all the former Death Eaters biting the dust these days," Tracey said. "I'm feeling very, very betrayed that you didn't invite me. I thought I made it clear that I'll be your right-hand girl when you become a Dark Lady."

Lucy conjured a chair with a flick of her wand. That one didn't have wheels.

"Do I need to go over that again?" She asked sitting down.

"Yeah, yeah, you're not that dramatic," Tracey replied, "Or brutal. Some dead kids this time around."

Lucy said nothing for a while, and seemingly content with staring at a strange instrument on her desk. It was a small sphere floating about an inch above her desk. Directly underneath it was something that resembled a small silver plate with some strange runes carved on it. The sphere was shifting in colour between various shades of blue.

"I was there before you Aurors arrived," Lucy said as she started poking the silver plate with her wand. Tracey noticed that the sphere was rotating even faster, "I know how it was."

"Of course you were," Tracey replied, "You have no idea how often Robards whines at me to make you stop going off to do that shit on your own. Shacklebolt too. It's always 'grrr Potter did this' and 'that damn Potter is at it again grrr' with them."

The sphere was now switching rapidly between a violent purple and red.

"Still no residue. Doesn't make sense." Lucy mumbled as she tapped it with her wand. It stopped spinning and settled into a cheerful sky blue colour. Tracey didn't bother asking her to elaborate, not in the mood to try to parse the magical mumbo-jumbo that would come out of her mouth.

"So why are you here instead of at work?" Lucy asked, turning to her. Using her years of experience, Tracey squashed the urge to squirm under her friend's piercing gaze.

Lucy always had a very intense look about her. Tracey wouldn't describe her as 'pretty' exactly, but there was an undoubtedly eye-catching, perhaps even handsome quality to her. Sirius always described her as having a strong resemblance to her father, despite her vastly different personality. From the pictures she had seen, Lucy did seem to share his dark hair, tall stature and even some of his facial features despite not inheriting his easy-going demeanor.

"I took a break," Tracey answered, shaking herself out of her musings, "Not like a permanent thing, just for a month."

"You wanted a break from the action? You?"

Tracey couldn't help but be a bit insulted at her friend's incredulous reply.

"Y'know," she answered spinning around on her chair, "it's not like I'd keel over dead if I don't get to fulfill my daily quota of duels."

"Forget I said anything then. So what do you plan to do with your break?"

"I was thinking of helping you actually," Tracey said, "Team up, solve the murderer that's been going around, make a difference. Y'know, like we used to."

Lucy gave her a pointed look causing Tracey to want to throw up her hands in frustration.

"Alright, I didn't want to fucking take a break from the action! Give me a break, you have no idea how frustrating it is to have to work with all the goddamn paperwork and red tape-"

"I have some idea," Lucy interrupted, "You complain about it every time we meet. And I wasn't going to say anything."

Tracey sighed, bringing her forehead down on the desk.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to go off at you."

"No problem."

They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes as Tracey watched her friend mess around with a few other magical devices..

"So what do you think?" Tracey broke the silence. "Want me to stick around and lend you a hand?"

"Can't really kick you out, can I?" Lucy replied with a rare smile as she got up from her chair. "There's an old friend I've been meaning to meet. Come on."

**-XXX-**

As soon as he heard footsteps outside the door, Theo shot out of his chair and dashed for the window. In a panic, he tripped over the leg of his desk and fell down with a loud thud. His mad scrambling was interrupted as something heavy collided with the side of his head, sending him rolling across the floor.

"I love these boots. There's something about kicking someone across the room that makes you feel powerful."

Theo almost laughed when he heard that familiar voice. Tracey Davis. Just the Aurors, not any monsters or _her_.

"Calm down Tracey, we need him conscious." A second and unfortunately familiar voice added.

_Why did I have to tempt fate?_

Theo briefly entertained the idea of playing dead. The panic had gone away now, just leaving him completely drained and tired.

"Seriously, you have to make me a matching set of gloves. You have no idea how much I want to punch bad guys through walls like in one of your muggle movies."

Theo felt someone grab him by the hair and much to his shame, he couldn't even will himself to resist.

"Good afternoon, Theodore." Lucy Potter greeted him with her pale green eyes barely five inches away from his own. "I have questions."

He forced himself to stand up if only to put some distance between them.

"Please try and run, dickhead. I want to know what it'll sound like when I snap your spine in half."

"Tone down the psychopath, Tracey. There's no need for any of that. Theodore is smart enough to give us what we want, isn't he?"

The scary part is that even an eleven-year-old Tracey Davis would have broken his spine given half the chance, let alone her current self.

"Unlike you two, I am a productive member of the society," Theo hoped he was keeping his voice from wavering. "As such, I have things to do. Whatever it is that you want, make it quick."

"Can I throw him out the window at least?" Tracey asked while sitting down on his chair with her shoes on his desk. Her filthy shoes on his expensive, beautiful desk. Maybe he was slightly vain but that annoyed him far more than her physical assault. Potter paid her no mind and turned to him instead.

"As you could guess, we're here about the attack on the Goyles. All the other attacks before had occurred at an interval of exactly twenty-three days. This one, however, had just nine days and I wanted to find out the reason."

"Who the fuck actually knows!" Theo surprised himself at the vitriol in his voice. "Maybe the maniac grew impatient? Maybe his mother-in-law was coming over and he had to reschedule? Why are you asking me?"

"Calm down, Theo. You don't understand what's happening here."

If it had been anyone else, just anyone else aside from Potter, then Theo was sure he'd have cursed that person on the spot.

"Y'know, just telling someone to calm down has never ever worked," Davis interjected. "Just look at him. I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to bite you or something."

"I suppose I am looking at this too academically. My apologies, Theodore."

"Keep your apology, I'd rather have your leave."

Theo found himself staring at the ceiling with a dull throbbing pain on his forehead.

"Try to be cute again and I'll rip your fucking face off. You have no idea how much I want to do that. Selling out your pals saved you from Azkaban but I remember what you did."

In the same situation, Malfoy would have quipped to Potter to keep her dog on a leash. However, there was a reason that Malfoy was missing an arm while Theo wasn't.

"I surrendered myself to the justice system and paid my dues. What would you have me do? Track down every muggle-born in the country and prostrate myself while begging for forgiveness?"

"A justice system created to benefit people like you, Nott." Potter replied, motioning to Davis to stop as she took a step forward. "Don't insult me by implying that fairness can be found there. But we're getting away from the topic at hand."

Potter waved her hand and the furniture arranged itself back into place. This casual display of wandless magic was hardly the first time he'd seen her do it but it still gave him a pause.

"There is one thing about these recent attacks on the former Death Eaters that sets it apart from just about every other murder that I've seen. You might not have heard but it's not just the wizards in the house that are killed. Every single creature living there, from the house elves, down to the smallest insects, ends up dead."

Theo felt a chill run down his spine. With the element of surprise, a common wizard or even beasts like werewolves could kill a house full of wizards. But to kill everything in the vicinity? He couldn't even wrap his mind around how that could be done.

"But this is where the most recent attack gets interesting. The murder of the Goyles had the appearance of the previous attacks but that's all it had. All the wizards were killed in a way that looks the same and they're missing their hearts as well but it's messier than usual. What gives it way is that the various pests around the house were still alive, including the house-elf which seems to have escaped."

Theo felt hope bloom deep in his chest. After months upon months of this monster culling the pureblood community one at a time, there was finally something to go on.

"Considering the evidence," Potter continued, "It's likely that this attack was conducted personally and framed in a way to make it resemble the previous murders."

"So you're looking for the elf then? Just find the elf and you find the killer?"

"We are, but it's not that simple. Even assuming the elf wasn't hunted down, finding a house-elf that doesn't want to be found is a fair bit harder than whatever magic was used to kill everyone in the previous attacks. It might have just been done by someone else who wanted to pin the blame on the original killer. At this point, it's not clear."

Of course, the hope was dashed away shortly. He really should have known better. Theo also didn't miss the casual tone with which she talked about using magic to murder every living creature in a house, as if she was familiar with the magic used.

"But let's assume for a second that the culprit for the Goyles murder is the same as one for all the previous attacks. What we want from you, is the possible reason for our culprit to break the pattern. Logic dictates that something must have happened before the recent attacks. Something that would induce urgency. Maybe something that his future targets did?"

"Well," Theo began after a moment of thought, "Malfoy got in touch with me four days ago, but that's about it for anything memorable. He said he had a plan and wanted to meet up to discuss. I refused, of course, so no need to ask me about that."

"Why refuse? You weren't curious about what he might have discovered?"

"Asking every pureblood to gather together in one place? You couldn't make for a better target for the killer if you tried. Besides, I have plans of my own."

Theo immediately regretted the words as soon as it came out of his mouth. Why did he let her condescension goad him like that?

"So where are you planning to run away? France? Germany?" Davis asked with a grin as she got up from the chair. "Don't look so surprised, you have about fifteen different maps on your desk."

"I'm not sure if the distance is even a factor in the magic used in the killings," said Potter as she followed her friend out the door, "I need to look into that."

"Glad to know," Theo muttered to himself, finally alone.

**-XXX-**


	2. Melancholia

**-XXX-**

**CHAPTER 2**

**Melancholia**

**-XXX-**

"So that was a complete fucking waste of time," said Tracey as she paced the room in frustration.

Even when they were at Hogwarts, Theo Nott had always been a sneaky bastard that knew more than you'd expect from someone so weak at magic. If there was one thing they could trust in the Slytherin House, it was for him to give useful information after some carefully applied violence. It didn't hurt that he was an amoral scumbag meaning that she could mess with him all she wanted, absolutely guilt-free.

"No, I think that was more or less productive."

Lucy was sitting on the floor of the room with a massive book spread out in front of her.

"What the hell did you even get from him?" Tracey asked, incredulous. "I think we were the ones who gave him actually useful information."

"Well, we did learn one thing that will make the mystery much easier to solve. For one thing, wouldn't it be too much of a coincidence that Malfoy just happened to come up with a plan and the killer breaks the pattern immediately afterward?"

It surprised Tracey to see Lucy give Malfoy this much credit, given her low opinion of him throughout the years. While the boy used to think of her as some sort of rival, Lucy had always thought him too pathetic to bother engaging. Of course, Malfoy had eventually gotten a pretty unmistakable reminder on just how below them he was. If he had paid better attention to the Hogwarts motto, then he'd be looking much more symmetrical these days.

"I know you're smart and all but you're not going to convince me that Draco fucking Malfoy of all people got one over this killer."

"As stupid as Malfoy can be, there are plenty of people who are stupider." Lucy replied, "The recently dead Gregory Goyle for one. I don't think I've seen anything that points to our culprit being intelligent rather than just gifted in Dark Arts."

"Alright," Tracey conceded, "so let's assume that Malfoy came up with a plan that would make this killer's whole thing useless. How does it lead to him breaking the pattern? Walk me through the whole thing."

Lucy pushed to book to the side and rolled backward to lie down on her back.

"Well this is based on guesswork so bear with me here. The killer has a way of tracking Death Eaters and is capable of getting past the numerous protections of their homes. This means, spying on them wouldn't be beyond his capabilities either."

"On the other hand," she continued, "we have Draco Malfoy, notorious scumbag and an obvious target for our killer. Desperate to avoid getting brutally killed, he comes up with an idea that could protect him from the killer. He then contacts his former Death Eater friends to discuss this plan."

"Okay, hold on right there," said Tracey, "Why share the plan and not just save his own skin?"

"Maybe it requires cooperation? Maybe he doesn't want his allies to die? Maybe his mum told him to?" Lucy suggested. "It's not completely unbelievable."

"So your theory is that Malfoy comes up with this amazing plan and tells his mates. The killer is spying on him and finds out. Then he kills Goyles ahead of the schedule just to prove that he can do it that way. To rub it in Malfoy's face? Is that right?"

"Well, that would be one theory," Lucy replied, rubbing her eyes with the flat of her hands. "Or it could be that Goyle had some critical piece of information and needed to be eliminated."

Tracey let out a sigh and plopped down on the floor beside Lucy. It's been a long time since she'd seen her friend this tired. While it worried her to see Lucy in this state, a small part of her was excited as well. It reminded her of their Hogwarts days where there was always a new problem that needed solving. Even after working so many Auror cases, there was never anything quite like teaming up with Lucy. No paperwork, no chain of command, no bureaucratic headaches, just Tracey and her best friend, and the thrill of uncovering new and dangerous mysteries while giving both Dumbledore and Voldemort equal amounts of headache with their antics.

"I dunno," she admitted, "It feels way too easy."

"It could be," Lucy said, turning to look at her, "Not every Dark Wizard out there is Voldemort, you know. As I see it, there are three ways to go about it. The first is to find the House Elf, the second is to find Malfoy, and the third one is to understand the magic used by the killer. If we can do all that and put together our findings, I don't see how we won't find this killer."

After a moment of companionable silence, Tracey finally asked.

"So where does it leave us? Hunt down Malfoy and find out what he knows?"

"While I'd love to chat with Draco," said Lucy as she stood up, "I think we should look into the house-elf first."

As Lucy offered a hand, she grasped it and reluctantly got up.

"How the hell do we even find a house-elf?"

"Well," her friend replied, "Why not talk with someone who has studied them?"

**-XXX-**

Regardless of how old she was, seeing the Burrow that always put a smile on Tracey's face. Her own family house was a small and cold little place with nobody to fill it except Tracey herself and her sick father. Not pureblood enough to have any relatives in the wizarding world. Not rich enough to have servants or house-elves around the house. Just a miserable block of stone to house a spiteful dying man. Now it felt so much like a mausoleum that Tracey couldn't even bring herself to go there.

The Burrow, on the other hand, was the complete opposite in every conceivable way. Even after all these years, the crooked little house was still as lively and warm as it used to be. You could practically feel it just from afar. She noticed that Lucy had a small smile on her face as she approached the door.

"You smell that?" Her friend asked.

"As soon as we apparated," replied Tracey, "I could really do with some food right now"

"And would you look at the time? Just in time for lunch." Lucy smiled at her. "What a coincidence."

Her ensuing laugh was caught short as the door opened, revealing Molly Weasley.

"Oh, goodness me!" she gasped, "It's you two!"

Before she could even open her mouth, they were dragged inside by a fussing Mrs. Weasley.

Many people had found it hard to believe that they had a good relationship with Molly Weasley. After all, Tracey had no patience for rules, and a younger Lucy had absolutely no concept of tact. While there were definitely some rough patches along the way, they were still quite fond of the Weasleys and Molly had made it clear that they were always welcome at the Burrow. It was a foreign concept for them at the time so they were very appreciative.

"Months!" she exclaimed as she pulled them into bone-crushing hugs. "It's been months since you last visited. You don't care about this old woman's feelings I suppose?"

"She's been absolutely swamped with work, Mrs. Weasley," said Lucy, saving her the trouble. "Hadn't visited me in a while either."

It went without saying that neither of them was telling her of their ulterior motive for the visit. They needed to get in touch with Hermione Granger but neither of them could just pop into the Ministry without drawing attention. They could drop by her house but the constant Auror escorts made that very annoying. Having Arthur Weasley ask her to come by their place was the much easier option. Plus, the food was always good here.

"Oh, enough about work," said Mrs. Weasley, "I've had enough of that from Arthur. Thank god, he came in for lunch today. He's going to be very glad to see you. Now make yourselves comfortable, dear."

As they found themselves a place to sit, Molly bustled towards the kitchen while shouting at others to come down. A quick set of footsteps later, they were greeted enthusiastically by Arthur Weasley, who looked greyer than she remembered him being. He was followed by a laughing Ginny. Lucy quickly struck up a conversation about Ginny's Quidditch trials prompting an enthusiastic discussion with Mrs. Weasley occasionally joining in from the kitchen. It was pretty clear that no one there besides Ginny had much of an idea about Quidditch. Still, it seemed that the girl was more than happy to explain professional Quidditch in detail.

As the laughs and conversations went on, Tracey suddenly felt a pang of unease in her stomach. She paused for a moment and tried to place the feeling.

A sudden hand on her shoulder almost made her jump and she turned to see Lucy looking at her. Repressing the sudden urge to shiver, she tried to clear her mind instead.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

"Sorry," Tracey told Mr. Weasley, who had also been looking at her. "It's been a really busy couple of weeks so I'm a bit knackered."

"Oh, dreadful affair," Mr. Weasley suddenly looked a lot older, "Just dreadful. I really was hoping the war would be the end of such nonsensical violence."

"I mean, I'm not saying it's okay or anything," Ginny began, "but Death Eaters killed and tortured a lot of people. Did really expect nobody to come after them for revenge?"

"Given the precedent set by the last war, I can see why they weren't afraid of any consequences." Lucy replied, "And as much as I hate Death Eaters, going after their families just crosses the line."

Tracey had to stop herself from laughing at that.

"Yeah, that's bad, don't get me wrong." said Ginny, "But this whole thing feels overblown, you know. The way the Prophet just goes on about it, saying how it's an attack on wizard culture itself. It's just nonsense."

While callous, Tracey couldn't help but agree in part. Even after all these months, the actual number of victims wasn't really all that high. In fact, Voldemort's ministry had killed more Muggleborns in the first week alone. It was clear that the reason this case got a lot of attention is because of the influence the Purebloods had over the Ministry.

Despite that, the girls comment still rubbed her the wrong way though. When you've actually seen the bodies of the children that had been ripped apart with your own eyes, it was hard to criticise anyone for wanting the killer brought to justice as soon as possible. Some of his targets being scumbags didn't change that at all.

"Well, it's been a long time since I've believed the Daily Prophet and I'm not about to start now." Mr. Weasley replied. "We've all lost people but a tragedy is still a tragedy no matter what the numbers are or what the paper says."

"Regardless," Lucy added. "We're making good progress now so it won't be long before the whole thing is over."

Mrs. Weasley entered with a tray full of cookies bringing the mood up once again. The discussion quickly shifted to Mr. Weasley's curiosity about Muggle technology which caused Ginny to gleefully recall the time Ron flew the enchanted car into the Lovegood house. Meanwhile, Tracey tried her best to keep her mind focused on the conversations. It was fortunate for her that Lucy had managed to become savvy at handling people these days so she didn't really have to contribute to keep the conversations flowing. Still, seeing her friend interact with people like this, she found herself almost missing the old Lucy. The girl used to grind almost all conversations to a halt with her unintentional and cutting insults while being completely oblivious to it all.

Soon enough, the food was gone and it was time for them to leave. As Mrs. Weasley and Ginny stepped into the kitchen with the dishes floating behind them, Lucy took the chance and pulled Mr. Weasley aside.

"Regarding these recent incidents," she asked, passing him a note "I have something important that I need to consult with Hermione. Could you tell her to meet us at this location?"

"Of course," he replied immediately.

There was no need to convince him that secrecy was important, nor did he ask why we couldn't deliver it ourselves. He was a good guy like that, and surprisingly sharp to boot. There weren't many people Lucy would trust with her location after all.

"Thank you," said Lucy with a smile, "This case is on everyone's minds so I wanted to avoid putting her in the spotlight by publicly approaching her."

"I understand, but you two need to take care of yourselves." Mr. Weasley replied, pocketing the note, "God knows, you're capable Witches but I've heard enough about this mess to know how dangerous it is."

"You know us, Mr. Weasley," Tracey replied with a smile. "Harder to kill than a pair of cockroaches. We'll be just fine."

After his usual insistence to be called Arthur, followed by goodbyes, they were off. Tracey still had the same uneasiness even as she was leaving the Burrow but the prospect of a night full of brainstorming made it easier to put it aside. She did notice that Lucy was holding her hand tighter than usual as they apparated away.

**-XXX-**


	3. Lesson No. 1

**-XXX-**

**CHAPTER 3**

**Lesson No. 1**

**-XXX-**

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," Snape said with barely hidden distaste as he addressed the class. Despite being the Head of Slytherin, just about everyone has told her to do whatever it takes to avoid getting on his bad side. Of course, Tracey was off to a shitty start already since she had spaced out for the rest of his speech.

"Potter!" Snape suddenly barked out, bringing Tracey out of her stupor, "Thinking yourself too good to pay attention?"

The girl in question stopped scrawling on her parchment and looked at the professor.

"No."

Nobody at Hogwarts seemed to know what to make of the Girl-Who-Lived. Many had been expecting her to be some sort of stalwart hero who'd be a shoe-in for Gryffindor. Some in Slytherin were hoping for a Dark Lady to succeed the Dark Lord. It looked like both were off the mark since she'd been sorted into Slytherin but showed no inclination for mayhem so far. While it was somewhat of a relief, considering she herself was Half-Blood, Tracey couldn't help but be slightly disappointed at the same time. A little bit of death and destruction here and there would be more interesting than just lugging around homework for the rest of her Hogwarts days.

"No, Sir." Snape corrected with a sneer.

Potter just continued staring at Snape with her usual disinterested expression. For a second, she really thought he was going to attack her right there from the way the various veins were popping on his face.

"Detention!" said Snape with more venom in his voice than Tracey thought possible, "I will not tolerate any cheek in my class. Don't expect to get by on your fame here, Potter."

The guy said 'Potter' with so much hatred and disgust that it felt like a forbidden swear word. Tracey couldn't help but be impressed. The Potions Master went on to finish addressing the rest of the class before turning to the Girl-Who-Lived once again.

"Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

To the surprise of everyone, the professor most of all, the girl started to calmly flip though her potions textbook.

"Put the book away!" Snape was almost shouting at this point.

"But I thought you wanted to know?"

The ensuing silence was broken only by Tracey's loud laughter. Snape saddled her with a week of detention for that and the other Slytherins were pretty pissed off at her. Tracey couldn't be happier, though. It seemed like Hogwarts would be more fun that she expected.

**-XXX-**

"So, the suspects?" Tracey began.

"The suspects," Lucy agreed, as she poured herself a cup of one of her weird tea, "I've tried to go through this a few times before but nothing much came of it. A fresh start might help."

Ahead of when was a sleek white board that was filled with weird looking symbols towards the sides with the middle part noticeably empty. It was a standard issue board used by the Auror Department, designed to help the investigators organise and sort through a large amount of information. The two of them had 'liberated' this one from the Ministry a few years ago. Lucy had tried to justify it as 'for a good cause' but she didn't need a justification and gleefully went along with it. Of course, her friend had modified the thing to the point that it was basically unrecognisable now.

"So, let's start with the motive," said Tracey, "That one's obvious enough at least."

"That's the problem though," her friend replied, "I've tried to create a list of all the people alive that have been victimised by the Death Eaters in serious ways. Losing loved ones, torture, and so on."

Lucy tapped one of the symbols with her wand and the middle section of the board became absolutely covered in tiny writing, to the point that Tracey had to put her face just inches from the surface just to parse the names.

"Well that's a clusterfuck and a half," she muttered.

"That's one way to put it," Lucy replied, "For all their faults, Voldemort's Ministry was quite competent at keeping records so we have this much."

Tracey had noticed both their names towards the top of the list.

"Very cute," she said, then after a moment of thought, added. "How would you actually react if it turned out to be me all along?"

"It wouldn't be that big a surprise, honestly," said Lucy, "You're crazy enough."

"Pots, kettles, and all." grinned Tracey, "You have a point, though. Murdering Death Eaters won't really be some kind of huge dramatic betrayal."

"Hmm." Lucy paused and took a long sip from her cup, "A good betrayal would be if it turned out that you've been working with Voldemort all along, or something along the lines."

"That would make me a pretty shit minion since I helped kill the bastard,"

"Or so I thought," Lucy said with a smile, "But it turns out that you misled me with your devious charm and hid the real Horcruxes."

"Very dastardly of me. So what else? Is Voldemort secretly my dad as well?"

"I did not need the mental image in my head." Lucy said with a wince.

"Fucking hell! Why did your brain even go there?"

"I'm not the one who brought up the idea of Voldemort reproducing."

"Okay, we're getting way off track here," Tracey said, determined to mentally repress this conversation. "Back to the suspects."

Lucy took another sip and nodded.

"We'll need to reduce this list to the ones who'd be actually capable of the murders. It'd probably be easier to start by throwing out those who'd have absolutely zero chance and work up from there."

"Squibs, near-squibs, and who else? Lucy asked.

"Her, for one." Tracey tapped Alice Longbottom's name on the board. "And other long term residents at St. Mungos. While we're at it, might as well check the logs there and see who was staying overnight during the night of the Goyles murder."

"I'll need to ask Daphne about the hospital logs," Lucy said as she fiddled around with the board, "But I've got the rest of the information on hand."

Soon enough, less than a quarter of the names had been removed. Not much of an improvement but it was a start.

"Which brings us to opportunity," said Lucy, "Like you said, people that couldn't have been at the Goyle's during the night of the murders. This one's going to be hard."

"I know how that goes," Tracey muttered. One of the biggest pains of investigating a crime was that even the guiltiest person would have some friends to back up their stories. You could catch a bastard with blood all over his robes and dark magic in his wand but his wife would still claim that he was helping her bake cake or something usually that inane.

"Do the Aurors have any new information for this one?"

"Nah," she said. "Don't expect anything from there. Robards is personally leading this investigation now and the man can't find the end of his fucking wand, let alone a mysterious killer."

"Well," Lucy replied after a moment of thought, "I suppose the only thing we can do is ask trustworthy people and have faith."

Tracey didn't like that one bit and she knew that Lucy didn't either. There were plenty of people that she could trust totell her the truth but she couldn't trust anyone to not lie to themselves. Even the best people in the world can have a blind spot for the ones they love. You can provide a human mind with all the pieces of the puzzle but if the mind doesn't want to put it together, there was nothing you could do. Annoyingly enough, she couldn't really think of a better way either.

Before she could reply, there was a subtle but noticeable buzzing started in her left ear. The sign of someone tripping the intruder detection charm, which could mean only one thing.

"Well that was earlier than I expected," said Tracey, looking at the small clock on the desk. "Granger must be really spooked to actually leave work early for this."

Lucy put her cup down and moved to the door, quickly pulling her wand out along the way. After touching the tip of her wand to the door, she muttered a few words under her breath and gave Tracey a slight nod.

"I guess you only take your sweet time when it's me at the door?"

Her friend ignored her as she swung open the door to reveal a frazzled Hermione Granger on the verge of knocking.

Granted, Granger had always looked frazzled even before she was saddled with the unenviable job as the head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. While it looked like a respectable position on paper, especially for someone so young, it was clear that she hadn't been put there with her interests in mind. Despite its large size, the department by design lacked influence to actually do anything on its own. Since Granger was too competent to remove but would rock the boat too much elsewhere, so the solution was obvious.

"You look like you got into a fight or something?"

"What? No, I was just in a long meeting with the Minster."

'The Minister, not Kingsley,' Tracey mused, 'Things sure changed.'

"How did that go?" Lucy asked, moving to pour Granger a cup of tea. Despite the extremely rocky start, the two got along well these days. As petty as it was, Tracey couldn't help but feel annoyed when those two were together. Maybe it was just jealousy, she didn't really care. Despite that, she tried her best to be friendly and had a decent enough relationship with the muggleborn girl.

"He took two hours to basically tell me that it's not a good time," Granger said, making a face.

"It's been an entire fucking year since you first showed him your bill," Tracey replied, "Shacklebolt is going to keel over dead from old age before he allows the Wizengamot to vote on it."

Granger snorted at her comment as she carefully draped her coat over the chair. Since the moment she became the head of the department, the girl had been trying to pass a bill that would improve legal protection for the magical creatures in Britain. Needless to say, it wasn't going to be popular among the Purebloods.

"I really don't understand why he doesn't want to just bring it to the Wizengamot." Granger said, as she took the cup from Lucy, "If they vote against it then that'd be the end of it. If they vote for, then great news. This whole thing just serves no purpose."

"You know how those inbred twats are." Tracey answered. "Just bringing your bill before them is going to piss them off. I guess Kingsley doesn't want that."

"Not to make a light of a tragedy or anything," said Granger, "But they have more important issues to focus on now. It's a perfect time."

This whole game between Shacklebolt and Granger had been an absolute joy to watch for Tracey. The Minister had initially expected another Percy Weasley from the muggleborn but he couldn't have been more wrong. Granger had a stubborn streak that was almost unrivaled, coupled with an extremely strong sense of justice. Once she set her mind to something, there was very little anyone could do to dissuade her. On the other hand, there was Shacklebolt. A respectable person once, but politics had turned him into a spineless worm who thought compromise was the solution to every problem. In the end, it was clear that the girl was going to free every house-elf, centaur, merfolk, and every other critter in the country or die trying.

"Fuck me, I left the Aurors to get away from politics and I'd like to keep it that way," said Tracey, "Let's move on to less depressing topics, like murder."

Granger opened her mouth then quickly closed it. After all these years, it seemed like their pet Gryffindor had finally managed to learn self-control. Tracey could honestly say that she was very proud.

"Agreed," Lucy said as she cleared up the board, "We have more important things to do tonight."

"Okay," Granger said, walking over to the the board, "So what did you want to discuss with me?"

"I was hoping you'd lend us your expertise on house-elves," said Lucy.

'This is going to be a long night,' Tracey thought as Granger's face visibly lit up with excitement.

**-XXX-**


	4. Low

**-XXX-**

**CHAPTER 4**

**Low**

**-XXX-**

'I take back everything good I've ever said about Granger', Tracey thought as she stood in the Dining Room of the Goyle Manor.

Granger had been more than happy to help them track the house-elf, which led them back to the scene of the murder. From what Tracey could parse from her babbles, they were supposed to try and find its magical trace. Since subtle magic like sensing was pretty far from her specialty, Tracey was just along for the ride while Granger and Lucy did all the work. While the muggleborn was over the moon and Lucy seemed to be in good spirits, Tracey herself was far from happy to be here.

Just yesterday, she had stood on this very same sport examining the gruesome corpses as Cauldwell, her partner, diligently took notes. It was obvious that he didn't have the stomach for the job and looked seconds from throwing up. The boy was still trying to put on a brave face though, which Tracey found quite cute. While not the best at investigation, he was good enough at dotting the i's and crossing the t's when it comes to paperwork, leaving Tracey free to do her own thing. As she stared at him taking his detailed notes with a pale face and shaking hands, a sudden thought crossed her mind.

_I'm so tired._

When she was a kid, she had never really thought about what she wanted to be. Instead of doing the smart thing and actually thinking about it, she just told people she wanted to become an Auror. It made a lot of sense. Plenty of people had said that it would be a perfect job for someone like her. Hell, Mad-Eye Moody himself had told her that she'd make a fine Auror. While she didn't join up expecting a lot, Tracey was still hoping to find something in it that would give her some sense of fulfillment.

But after wasting years of her life playing the role, all she had to show was a vague sense of restlessness. Her co-workers would whine, compain, laze about, and slack off but it was clear that they liked being Aurors. She could see it when a difficult case was solved, when kids looked at them with admiring eyes, when lowlifes were intimidated by them, or even when Robards doled out a rare praise. All Tracey felt during those moments was a strange desire to run away. As if she was just an intruder using Polyjuice to play the role of Tracey Davis the Auror.

What was worse was that no matter how hard she wracked her brain, there was nothing else that she could see herself doing. She loved fighting, taking down bad guys, and getting to the bottom of mysteries. In fact, the best moments of her life involved doing just that with Lucy. Why was it that being an Auror felt so wrong then?

"Are you alright?"

The question shook Tracey out of her reverie and she turned to see Granger looking at her with concern. A retort immediately came to her mind but she forced herself to stop.

_What the fuck is my problem?_

"I'm good," She replied instead, noticing that Lucy was also approaching her.

"Nothing new in the guest rooms," Lucy told Granger and then turned to her, "You don't look very good. Feeling sick?"

"Liar, I always look good," Tracey replied. "And I'm totally fine."

"Well you don't look as good as you usually do," said Lucy as she grabbed both of Tracey's cheeks with her hands and pulled her head closer. "Don't tell me you're planning to lie to an expert Legilimens?"

Despite knowing that her friend was joking, a small part of her wished that Lucy would go on and read her mind. Maybe she could parse the mess that was inside since Tracey had long since given up.

"Threatening to violate the mind of an Auror?" Tracey hoped that her voice wasn't wavering, "We've got a cell reserved for perverts like you."

"I'm shaking in my boots," mocked Lucy as she let her go.

Tracey suppressed a strange feeling of disappointment at the loss of physical contact. Behind her, she could see Granger look at them with a strange expression.

After some more assurances that she was fine, Lucy and Granger finally left her alone and went on to check upstairs. As soon as they left the room, she took a deep breath to calm down.

_It's not the time to get lost in thoughts._

After ten more deep breaths, she felt her uneasiness subside.

_Now to see what I missed yesterday._

The room was exactly the same, sans the bodies. The same chairs spread around in the same orientation, same lamps still turned on, same carpet, same table, and so on. Even the food on the dining table was in the exact same state as yesterday.

On the kitchen side, the dirty pots and pans were similarly untouched. The kettle was still on the stove, same as yesterday, and the various ingredients were still strewn about. She opened the kettle and found nothing besides half-done tea. Turning around, the rest of the room was in a similar disarray as yesterday. The house-elf hadn't gotten the chance to clean.

_Same as yesterday?_

She hurried back to the dining room and looked at the elaborate dinner on the table. Poor Goyle didn't even get to eat it before getting ripped apart. For something that was prepared a day ago, it didn't really look or smell half-bad. With a frown, she slipped her wand out from her wrist holster and cast a quick detection spell. Within a moment, the table was absolutely lit up with an eerie green glow, a telltale sign of long-lasting charms.

_Merlin, I'm a fucking idiot._

It quickly became clear that some incompetent cunt had slapped preservation charms all around the room and called it a day. The good news was that the dinner was probably still edible. The bad news was that any magical traces that were left in that area would basically be destroyed now.

Preservation charms weren't uncommon in crime scenes but it was only used in moderation on _relevant fucking objects_ after they've been documented! She hadn't seen such an insult to Auror Regulations since that one idiot tried to take home an ear from a corpse as a trophy. If Mad-Eye saw this, he'd skin the bastard responsible for this alive.

Common sense dictates that any Auror worth their salt should have known not to contaminate the scene with unnecessary spells, especially not preservation charms, which were a pain in the ass to remove cleanly. Unfortunately, competent Aurors were in the minority these days. Each new batch was worse than the previous ones and the newest ones might just be stupid enough fuck up this badly.

'Could be incompetence, could be something else', Tracey mused, 'I'll need to follow up on this.'

It was no surprise that there were some among the Aurors who weren't exactly in the rush to find the culprit. While they weren't overt about their opinions, she had definitely heard the whispers. If it turned out that the department was involved in any way, this whole thing was going to be a pain to solve.

After a final look, she left the room and walked towards the direction of Granger's loud voice.

**-XXX-**

Like most things in life, all their messing about on the Goyle Manor wasn't a complete failure but not much of a success either. They had recovered a number of magical signatures from the place but it was going to take a lot of analysis before they could pick out which was which. Tracey found her own discovery more interesting, an opinion not shared by Granger, who thought it was just someone making a mistake.

Sometimes, Tracey just wanted to grab the girl by her fluffy hair and swing her around until she shut up. Lucy, fortunately, had the sense to see her reasoning and thought it was worthwhile to follow up on it. Before they could get on that, there was another thing that needed to be done.

The following morning saw the two of them sitting in a nondescript muggle cafe, waiting for Daphne Greengrass to arrive. While she wasn't a huge fan of muggle food, Tracey was willing to put up with it for the privacy Lucy got in these places.

Tracey looked around and tried to see if there was anything of interest in the place but nothing really stood out. Just a bunch of people enjoying a cup in the morning. Enjoying wasn't really the right word maybe. Everyone here seemed to look and act like they were at a funeral.

'Muggles really are a dour bunch', Tracey thought to herself.

She'd heard that it was something specific to this country rather than muggles as a whole but it was still hard to imagine their large grey cities being actually lively in any country.

Lucy was sitting opposite her dressed quite similarly to many of the other patrons, with a heavy black coat and cream coloured scarf wrapped around her neck. She seemed to be staring intently at the muggle newspaper in her hands. Even for Tracey, it was hard to tell if she was actually interested in it or she was just trying to fit in. Despite her carefully selected outfit, Lucy's dark hair was let loose in the usual untidy manner.

_Some things just stay the same I suppose._

Tracey herself had just thrown on a white T-shirt with a childish drawing of a cat and grey trousers. Nothing fancy but enough to fit in with muggles and a lot better than most wizards could manage. She had put in marginally more effort with her hair compared to Lucy, as it was pulled back in a simple blonde ponytail.

"And I thought the Prophet was bad," Lucy suddenly spoke and carefully put down the paper. "Our friend is here."

Tracey turned the glass door and saw a very annoyed looking Daphne Greengrass struggling to enter. After a few more seconds of fiddling with the handle, the girl finally figured out the sliding door and entered the cafe. At this point, just about everyone seemed to be staring at her. If the whole ruckus wasn't enough, Daphne was pretty clearly in her Healer robes.

"Great job fitting in", Tracey muttered.

"Don't worry too much," Lucy reassured, "Muggles will think it's just a fancy looking dress."

It was hard to get actually mad at her though. Daphne Greengrass had the distinct honour of being the only Slytherin in their year that the two of them could stand. Despite her best attempts to build a frosty demeanor, anyone who had spent more than five minutes with her could see through her very poor act. It was honestly quite endearing.

It was kind of funny how Daphne was basically what Lucy's biggest fans expected her to be. While Daphne was genuinely kind and personable underneath the thin facade of coldness, Lucy was… very different. Not that she'd have it any other way.

After Hogwarts, Daphne had immediately started working towards becoming a Healer at St. Mungo's, much to the surprise of her family. A pretty good fit for such a warm girl, in Tracey's opinion. At least someone had an idea of what to do with their life/

"I've brought everything you asked," said Daphne standing in front of them with all the dignity she could muster.

"Thank you," Lucy said motioning to the empty chair beside her. "Hope it wasn't much trouble."

Daphne smiled brightly and pulled out the chair, making it screech loudly across the floor. Blushing beet red, she let out a hasty apology as she sat down.

It was really hard to get mad at Daphne Greengrass.

The girl in question then took out a considerably large folder from her quite small handbag. Very covert. Fortunately, none of the muggles seemed to be looking in their direction.

Last night, Lucy had sent a message to Daphne asking her to bring a bunch of important documents from St. Mungos and meet them here. It contained records of visitors, appointments, residents, and similar information during the dates of all the murders. Hopefully, it would help narrow down the list of suspects by a lot.

Instead of pestering them about the case like many would, Daphne immediately struck up a conversation with Lucy about unrelated topics. It was things like that that made her really appreciate Daphne. Tracey opted to keep quiet and simply watched the two talk for a while. It was still surreal to see her freely talk with people.

"Have you heard from Draco Malfoy?" Tracey asked after a few minutes of idle chat, interrupting Daphne's long-winded explanation about her pet Kneazle's stomach condition.

"Not in a while," Daphne replied with a surprising amount of annoyance in her voice. "Or any of the Malfoys for the matter. With luck, they're all dead in a hole somewhere."

"No such luck," said Tracey, "The weasel is still kicking about as far as we know."

"When was the last time you say any of them?" Lucy asked.

"I don't remember the exact date but I know it was sometime before any of the recent deaths started," Daphne began, "Lucius missed one of his regular appointments so I attempted to get in touch with him. Not out of any personal desire, mind you, the hospital just tries to keep an eye on the biggest donors and I was selected to be an appropriate person. I ended up stumbling upon Draco instead and he was as rude as you would expect. After that, none of them have set foot inside St. Mungo's to my knowledge."

_That little fucker was mean to Daphne! I'm going to rip off his other arm and feed it to him for that._

"That's a strange thing to do, even for Malfoy," Lucy mused, "Especially considering the murders hadn't even begun."

"Make that one more thing I can very politely ask him once I get my hands on him," Tracey said , with a renewed sense of vigour.

"That goes without saying," Lucy replied as she brought her cups to her lips. In a softer voice, she added, "Look outside, to your right."

Without turning her head, Tracey glanced outside and quickly scanned the throng of people moving outside the cafe. She could immediately pick out what Lucy was talking about. Daphne being the clever little biscuit that she was, didn't give any outward reaction and continued scanning the menu.

"Very professional, isn't he?" Lucy asked with a smile.

A man was outside, standing against the moving crowd and clearly looking in their direction.

**-XXX-**


	5. Human Behaviour

**-XXX-**

**CHAPTER 5**

**Human Behaviour**

**-XXX-**

Fighting was easy.

In fact, fighting was the one thing Tracey was good at. Not dueling, or anything fancy like that, just some simple fighting. In a duel, you win against someone but in a fight though, you survive, and Tracey was a natural at surviving. Sure, she did not know a lot about magic, nor did she know a ton of spells. What she did know was to not get hit, hit them fast, and hit them hard. Most of the time, it was enough for her to live to fight another day.

This time seemed to be no exception, either.

Tracey watched with no little amusement as two Snatchers argued about whose turn was the keep watch that day. Those bastards had holed up in a small cottage in the middle of a forest, no doubt their base of operations. Aside from the Anti-Apparition Jinx, the place had absolutely no protective enchantments as far as she could sense. If Tracey didn't know just how braindead these Snatchers were, she'd find it suspicious.

'So this is what Voldemort has to stoop to,' Tracey thought, as one nearly slipped and fell while trying to shove the other, 'He's had the control of the Ministry for months and this is the force he can muster. Idiots who can't spot an intruderfour feet away.'

The Sun was dipping towards the horizon, bathing the forest in an eerie red glow. Her original plan was to wait until nightfall but the more she looked at them, the less she thought it necessary. Those two idiots looked ready to come to blows, without her doing anything. After a moment of deliberation, she pointed her wand at the Snatcher standing on the right.

A quick stunner struck his back, causing him to collapse without a word. With one of them left alive to question, there was no need to hold back with the rest.

The second Snatcher could barely get his wand out before Tracey's curse punctured through his skull, killing him instantly. The body fell down with a comical thud, spilling blood and viscera all over the forest ground.

There were hurried shouts from some distance away, the other Snatchers seemed to have finally noticed her. Not exactly the most competent lookouts, these folks.

As they were too far away to accurately attack her, Tracey took a quick second to assess her opponents. Five Snatchers were hurrying towards her, without any semblance of teamwork or tactics. It said a lot about them that they weren't even attempting to flank her.

With a plan in mind, Tracey stepped behind a particularly large tree for cover. She quickly tapped the top of her head and cast a Disillusionment charm, before crouching down. Spells were raining down towards her, slowly getting more accurate as chunks of the tree were being ripped off. Unfortunately for them, they weren't aiming low enough to hit her even if the tree wasn't in the way.

'Enough messing about,' Tracey thought as she pointed her wand at the forest floor.

_'_ _Ventus'_

A gust of wind blew from her wand, tossing the dead leaves and dust from the forest floor up into their air. Whatever visibility that setting Sun was giving until now was killed by the cloud of dust and debris. Not wishing to give her opponents the time to understand what was happening, Tracey continued casting.

_'_ _Avis'_

The dead leaves floating nearby were transformed into a flock of small birds. With a quick _Oppugno_ , she directed them in the general direction of the Snatchers. In her head, she counted four seconds before hearing pained shouts. Using the momentary distraction, Tracey popped out of cover and took note of the approaching figures. While a Disillusionment charm wasn't something she'd normally depend on, the aggressive birds, cloud of dust, and the darkening sky made her confident in her camouflage. She noted five figures standing close together some distance away, flailing about as small birds surrounded them.

_'_ _Confringo,'_ she casted, pointing at the Snatcher in the middle. There was a thunderous roar as the blasting curse hit home, tossing all five of them away. Tracey was sure she could make out some detached limbs flying in the air. Only one of them had managed to get back on their feet, something Tracey was going to fix quickly.

_'_ _Sectumsempra'_

The Snatcher let out a horse scream as the spell gouged into his chest cavity, resulting in a large spray of blood drenching one of his fallen comrades. Without a pause, Tracey repeated the spell at each of the other figures, just to make sure they were dead. She fired a second one at the screaming idiot, just to put him out of his misery.

_I can be nice, see?_

"Fucking morons. Why would you even stand this close together?" said Tracey, more to herself than anything.

She slowly walked towards the Snatcher that she had left stunned. After the brief ruckus, the forest had returned to it's quiet state. The sound she could hear was the quiet rustling of leaves from the wind and the distant sound of birds. As she walked, Tracey wordlessly summoned the fallen wands into her hand before snapping them one by one. By the time she was standing over the Snatcher, it had finally gotten dark.

' _Incarcerous, Silencio, Rennervate_.'

The Snatcher was bound tightly by thick cords and silenced before he jerked awake.

"Let's start by making things clear." Tracey began, only for the Snatcher to start flailing about madly, probably not even paying attention to her words. Annoyed, she lifted her foot slowly and harshly brought it down on his face. Tracey then repeated it twice for good measure. More is always better, right? Apparently so, since he stopped moving about.

"Calm down you impatient cunt," Tracey said, "We have all night and none of us are going anywhere. As I was saying, I like to keep things clear so I'm just going to tell you what's going to happen. I'm going to torture you, you're going to tell me what I want, and I'm going to kill you."

Tracey had to suppress a laugh at his comically widened eyes. The man just looked unfortunate in every sense of the word. Even under normal circumstances, he'd hardly have been a looker given his patchy hair, spotty skin, and gaunt face. Right now though, he looked just about ready to keel over dead.

"Now that we have an agreement, let's get this party started then. Just a heads up for your sake, you don't really get used to the Cruciatus Curse. Trust me, I'm something of an expert."

She made a show of pulling up her sleeves as the man screamed wordlessly, tears pooling down his eyes. After a second of taking in the scene, she let out a sigh.

"I'm going to remove the silencing charm for a second. Don't scream or cry or I'll keep you alive for a very, very long time. That's a bad thing, by the way. If you have anything important to say, now's the time."

Upon undoing the charm, the Snatcher let out a series of hoarse breaths before gaining control of himself.

"Please, I'll give yo-"

"Let me guess?" Tracey interrupted, "You'll give me anything I want, right?

He nodded rapidly.

"Well, I don't really care what you want to give me. I'm going to take everything from you anyway."

He seemed to start crying again before Tracey delivered a corrective boot to the face.

"I could, I cou-" he swallowed and drew a deep breath. "I could lie to you. If you torture me, I'll lie."

"Trust me, boy." Tracey gave him a charming smile, "You won't have the ability to _think_ , let alone come up with lies. Hasn't your bald friend taught you about the Unforgivables?"

"Please, my fam-"

Tracey cut him off with a Silencing Charm.

"Oh please, not that shit again. There's no need to to tell me about your family. By the end of this, I'll know who they are, where they live, and I'm gonna give them a visit soon."

She watched for a while as he continued soundlessly crying, before punching him across the face.

"Let me get this straight," she said, "I know that you're not important enough to have any good information. I know that you're not really loyal to your Dark Lord. I know that you'd probably have given all the information if I just asked. And I know that you can change and become a better person. No need to feed me that shit."

"But here's the problem." Tracey, knelt down to get a better view of his face. "I don't really care. I'm not doing this to get information, or to deal some sort of strategic blow to the Death Eaters. I'm just doing this for fun. So unless you have something really, really fun for me, do yourself a favour and save your energy. It's gonna be a very long night for you."

She paused and waited to a count of twenty, giving him time to process everything.

"Do you still have something to say?" she finally asked.

Tracey undid the Silencing Charm once again, and the Snatcher started talking.

One thing Death Eaters never got right is that torture doesn't work. Put a bastard under the Cruciatus Curse long enough and you can get him to admit to killing Gordric Gryffindor himself. What people needed to spill the beans wasn't just plain old pain, but some motivation, and Tracey was more than happy to give it to scumbags.

Once she had everything she needed, Tracey quietly put him out of his misery. After one last look at bodies in the dark forest, she slowly started walking in the direction she came. A few minutes later, she was gone with a soft 'pop'.

**-XXX-**

_~~Present Day~~_

"Not even trying, is he?" Tracey asked. Another quick glance confirmed that the figure was still standing outside, quite obviously staring at them. The most notable thing about the spy was that he was doing an absolutely horrible job at blending in.

"I'm almost insulted," her friend replied, "So, what's the plan?"

While he didn't exactly seem like much of a threat, innocent bystanders added another dimension to a fight and complicated things. No longer was it about hitting the other party until they stop moving, you'd need to defend others, prevent collateral damage, and retreat if need be. Muggle bystanders made things even worse. As much as she hated it, avoiding these fights was the smart thing to do.

"Just put a tracking charm on him and deal with him later," Tracey replied, careful to turn away from the window while talking. He couldn't really use magic to spy on them without Lucy sensing it, so there wasn't much he could do from that distance aside from possibly reading their lips.

"That's... not what I expected from you," said Daphne. "Not even a bit of bloodshed?"

"Sorry to disappoint," Tracey replied, "I'll disembowel someone in front of you on our next date then."

Daphne tried to glare at her but the effect was weak.

"Very presumptuous of you to think there would be another," she retorted.

"I'll buy you ice-cream," Tracey grinned at her, "You know you can't resist."

Daphne let out a theatrical harrumph, making her laugh out loud. Tracey's reply was interrupted when Lucy tossed the newspaper at her.

"Take a look at the second page," she said, "I think you'll like it."

Tracey quickly flipped through it and immediately spotted what her friend's neat handwriting on the bottom left corner of the page.

_'_ _Tracking charm placed on him, don't react,'_ it read.

"Fuck me, these muggles really are a strange bunch," Tracey said with a grin as she put the paper down.

"What is it?" Daphne asked.

"Just muggle politics," Lucy simply replied, "You want me to explain?"

"Spare me."

Daphne would know that Tracey had absolutely no interest in politics, let alone muggle politics. It should be enough of a hint to let her know it was something secretive. To tell the truth, Tracey was very impressed by how calm Daphne was at that moment. What was more impressive, however, was Lucy's newest trick.

A tracking charm on a vigilant target, at that distance, without any noticeable incantation, and without a wand to boot. If anyone else had claimed something like that, she would have laughed them off. Even coming from Lucy, it was bordering on unbelievable. Her own plan would have her go to the loo, transfigure her clothes and facial features, apparate away, and then use the crowd as cover to get close enough to cast the tracking charm. Doable but fairly tough, not to mention that it took quite a bit of time.

A muggle approached them with their drinks before Tracey could get lost in her thoughts. In the excitement caused by the spy, she had somehow forgotten all about that.

"Hot chocolate, really?" Daphne mocked once the muggle was out of the earshot. "Are you actually six?"

"At heart," said Tracey, enjoying the warmth of the mug, "You're just jealous."

"I've told you already, their food is not to my taste."

"Sure, sure."

The drink was fine but Tracey made sure to act like it was the best thing she'd ever drunk in her life. The people around them occasionally gave her annoyed looks but she didn't really care. The need for blending in had long gone by now.

"Our admirer is gone now," Lucy said, causing Daphne to let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Merlin, I was getting sick of having to pretend everything was alright,"

"Well, you seemed pretty calm to me," Tracey said, putting the drink down.

"I mean, after all the things you two have done so far," Daphne answered, "I think I just trust you to handle whatever it is."

Tracey felt the familiar hollow ache in her stomach at Daphne's words. Before her thoughts could start spiraling, she latched onto any topic that came to her mind.

"How did you place the tracking charm on the bastard anyway?" Tracey asked.

"It's a nice trick," Lucy said as she dug into her pocket.

She then took out something and placed it dramatically on the table. After a closer inspection, Tracey found that it was an ordinary black button. Nothing really stood out about it, and it didn't seem to be magical either. It obviously belonged to the spy, that much was obvious.

"Let me give you a hint," her friend said, "It involved a Switching Spell."

'So she switched the button with something that had a tracking charm on it.' Tracey thought. Pretty clever but not something plebeians like her could ever use. Wandless Switching Spells were hardly a small feat.

"That's a pretty fucking bad hint." Tracey remarked, "You're supposed to keep it vague enough that we have to actually think to get the answer."

"Well, that's just how mysteries are sometimes." Lucy answered, "In some cases, all you need is the one clue and you can blow it open."

"And now you're making shit up to make yourself look clever." Tracey shot back.

"If I'm getting this right," Daphne interrupted, "You put the Tracking Charm on something, and switched it with the button of the person's clothes. Am I wrong?"

"Essentially, yes." said Lucy, "I transfigured my own button to look more like his, placed a Tracking Charm on it and swapped them."

"Yeah, yeah, very impressive," Tracey grumbled, "Can we just find and maim him already."

"And here I was thinking you had changed." Daphne remarked as she stood up. "Anyway, I have lingered enough already. It was a pleasure to-"

Whatever she was about to say was interrupted when Tracey pulled her into a hug.

"Stop being so stiff, you gremlin." Tracey whispered to her. "I didn't feed you all that ice-cream just for you to piss off without as much as a handshake."

"You're incorrigible!" Daphne said with a fond smile as she pulled away.

"Nice of you to assume she knows what that means," Lucy remarked, waving over a muggle.

"I'll remember that insult," Tracey vowed. "My revenge will be bloody and vicious."

After a couple more goodbyes, Daphne walked out, leaving the two of them with the bill. Tracey waited until the muggle was out of the earshot with their money before asking.

"So where has that bastard holed up, then?"

"Not very far away, surprisingly enough." Lucy answered, putting on her coat, "Let's go."

**-XXX-**


End file.
